Crosslinked polymers are known to increase thermal stability, toughness, and chemical resistance compared to their base, or uncrosslinked polymers. However, crosslinked polymers are also known to be intractable, making them difficult to reprocess or recycle. Therefore, there is a need for crosslinked polymers where the crosslinking elements can be reversed or removed (i.e., decrosslinked) when necessary.
Methods of forming recyclable polymers have included using oligomers capable of hydrogen bonding to form highly crosslinked networks, or highly crosslinked networks of polymers formed by reactive groups that can be thermally reversed or decomposed. However, these systems are limited by their moisture instability (in the case of the hydrogen bonded polymers) or limited by their upper use temperature. Due to these limitations, there is a need for improved methods of making reversible crosslinked polymers, including methods for crosslinking and decrosslinking polymers.